<p>OldinJersey -- Congratulations on having a decision made! I guess my daughter will make hers the last week in April. She is going to visit St. Olaf this weekend and Pacific Lutheran the next. But right now Wooster is at the top of the list. We were both kind of blown away that a college we previously knew NOTHING about and that she sort of picked at random to apply to could be such a good match. It seems to be about the right size (small but not TOO small), very friendly, nice town, enthusiastic and helpful faculty, good science programs, pretty campus. My daughter met several professors. She went to sit in on a religion class but the schedule was wrong, so the class wasn't there, so the head of the dept. found another class for her to sit in on. The students were very friendly and helpful too. She also met a couple of the science faculty who were very eager to show her around and answer any questions. And I liked the emphasis on writing. The freshman writing seminar, the junior project and then the senior independent study all seem like very worthwhile college experiences to have.</p>
<p>She looked at three schools on this trip. We traveled to Chicago and she sat in on a couple of classes with her brother at UChicago and met some of his friends. We stayed downtown which was fun -- I had never stayed downtown before. There was a bus right outside our hotel that went straight to Hyde Park, too, very convenient. After a day in Chicago, we took the train to Kalamazoo, another great school with an amazing study abroad focus. UChicago is a rather big place and my son's dorm is a twenty minute walk from the quads (30 minutes for an old fogey like me), so in comparison, Kalamazoo seemed like a dollhouse. It is a fabulous school, and seems to have programs that would suit my daughter very well, but the campus just seemed so small to her. The campus is only about 60 acres. Then we rented a car and drove back to Chicago for Easter with a relative that lives there. Then on Easter afternoon we drove for over seven hours through Indiana and Ohio to Wooster. We drove to the college the next day for the accepted student program and immediately thought, okay, this looks like a nice place, kind of in between the bigness of UChicago and the tininess of Kalamazoo. She is thinking of majoring in a science and of course UChicago is a great school with a great reputation, but it seems to me (and to her) that a small, friendly, more supportive school will allow her to be more successful if she chooses that path. Just seems to suit her personality more. </p>
<p>So now, I am just waiting to see how St. Olaf and Pacific Lutheran compare. She is going to visit those two on her own. She was also accepted to Grinnell, (but with no $$, unfortunately!), and I would like for her to visit that one too, but don't know if she can squeeze another visit in. She still has to go to her high school classes, after all. Can't just take the whole month of April off, though it would be nice . . .</p>